1 Discard the stem and seeds from the chiles and tear the chiles into small pieces. Place them in a spice grinder, along with sugar, coriander seeds, and salt, and grind until powdery.

2 Remove the opaque membrane from the bone side of the ribs by loosening it with a sharp knife, then pulling it off. Pat the ribs dry and place them in a dish. Two hours before you wish to cook the ribs, coat them with the spice rub, patting the rub so that it adheres. Cover and refrigerate.

3 Mix the ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, corn syrup, and mustard with H cup (125 ml) water in a small bowl. In a small saucepan, heat the oil over medium-low heat. Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes, or until softened. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute longer. Pour in the ketchup mixture and bring to a boil, stirring. Boil gently, stirring from time to time, for 10 minutes, or until the glaze is slightly thickened. Remove from the heat, add a pinch of salt, and allow to cool. You will have about 1 cup (250 ml) glaze.

4 Thirty minutes before cooking, remove the ribs from the refrigerator. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

5 Place the ribs in a roasting pan and roast for 45 minutes. Remove the ribs from the oven and brush the meaty side with the glaze. Increase the heat to 400°F (200°C) and cook the ribs for 15 minutes more, or until the ribs remain rare at the bone. Let rest for 10 minutes.

6 Cut into individual ribs to serve, and pass plenty of paper napkins.

DEVON MAKES THE RIBS

Although we eventually sat down to a very good meal, this recipe gave me a lot of trouble. It started when I asked my butcher for two racks of meaty beef ribs.

First he sent me short ribs. Then, after much discussion, he sent me short ribs still attached to each other. I made the recipe using these, but it was obvious that they were going to have to cook a lot longer than the 45 minutes the recipe called for. I ended up cooking them for 3 hours, and while the end result was tasty, I could tell that it wasn't what McLagan had in mind, nor did it look anything like the picture in her book. After showing my butcher the photograph, he convinced me to try again with a rack of beef ribs--prime rib bones from which he had removed the steaks. The results were very tasty, but we both agreed that the photo looked like what we call "baby back ribs" or spare ribs, which are pork.

I don't happen to own a spice grinder. I used a baby Cuisinart, left over from baby food days, and a mortar and pestle, but had a hard time getting this mixture to be powdery. In the end I settled for a coarse rub.

I haven't cooked everything in the book, so I don't know if there are other problems like this one, and I don't know how many people have butchers as helpful as mine. The other recipes I tried were generally successful, tasty and most important, not too challenging.